Day 3

MAN! It's only Day 3! Another stupid morning jog of 2.4km. I felt like i did worse than yesterday, clocked at 22min 06sec. I was running crippled like an old man, and the last one who reached the finishing line. Haha! At least I did it.

Breakfast was horrible, i am not going to even attach any photo of it here. Pain from yesterday was even more excruciating today. So pain that it literally took me more than a minute just to remove my shirt. Those who were more observant and sympathetic offered to assist me in changing. =.= I told them i was fine though, thanks anyway :P Hope that the pain will subside eventually, but looking at the current condition now i guess it's hard. Otherwise, I can't see how am i going to move on.

Breakfast was over, now it's time to get ready for boat rowing. I bet it's gonna be tough, oh well..i guess i'll just do whatever that's thrown at me and try not to give up. First of all, we have to prepare the boats (kinda upgraded version of 'sampan'). Then push it all the way out to the launching bay which is so very slippery i almost fell a few times. I think everyone was suffering the same trouble. Once we were at the launching bay, 2 boats were launched at a time so that we would not crash into each other (the boats weren't exactly that light you know?) There will be 4 main rowers + 2 paddlers + 1 helm (captain who will be in charged of giving direction; kononnya) + 1 rudder control (left and right steering a the back) + 1 'kelefeh' = 9 people per boat. Yes, there were 3 boats altogether and it's ultra packed. These roles will be rotated throughout the journey for the next 5 hours. Apparently main rowers would be the most shitty roles, paddlers not so bad, and the last 3 people who do nothing will get the chance to rest. Me? I rested most of the time. LOL! Oh, my boat's name is Stinray VIII.

After launching, we were off to row and row and keep rowing forward until we hit back our starting point. Yes, around the island. My first role was to be the helm! Woohoo!

Random photos taken not-by-me after launched!


My boat! I was the paddler by the time the photo was taken :)


Lunch time! Everyone rafted up by holding onto each other boat to prevent separation.


Left : Hello ferry! (Waving towards the passengers) Right : Danger! Stay away from the rocks!

We have been clearly instructed not to row too near to the coast especially rocky area because we would risk losing control and ram into one of those and damage the boat or get stuck in between those rocks. However, i must say that i was very impressed because one of our boats tried to pull a stunt by rowing over a narrow passage between two chunks of big rocks, luckily without any incidents. When questioned, they said that they wanted to take the shortcut. Fuh! My guess was that, we have almost reached the destination by that time so i guess everyone couldn't wait to get home :P

A very dangerous maneuver. Please do not try this at home.

FINALLY, rowing was over, around the Pulau Ubin, covered at least 20km. Ben rowed from beginning until the end, NON-STOP! Respect!I felt like drag to the team because i couldn't do much. Arms hurt like hell. Still, thanks to our strong rowers and team determination, we were the first boat to make it back in 4 hours 30mins.

Da finishing line! Beaching up!

In the evening, i miraculously complete another run, this time round it was a 5km run. Of course it was no easier than yesterday, tired as hell. Tomorrow will be a even longer run. F*ck!

CPR briefing during night time was funny, even though many of us took it lightly, upon second thought, i think that it's really important as it could actually make a difference between life and death, and even by learning this seemingly unimportant lesson could actually improve the odds of saving someone's life one day.

Tonight's activity ended late, i slept at 11.30pm. I have never appreciated sleeping so much in my life before, and now i know how important it is to be able to sleep early. Anyway, good night, another one day over. Still aching all over.

Mood : (Hellish)^2
Day's Left : 18

Day 2

Rain very heavily in the morning, I hoped it stayed that way so i don't have to get up from the bed. Alas, it did not happen...oh well. Woke up @ 5.30am and would be expected to be doing so for the remaining days. Very sleepy still, had to go to the expedition court by 5.55amwhere everyone gathers and raise 3 flags in the morning, the OBS flags, followed by an unknown flag, followed by the Singapore national flag. Then we have this so called "Basic Exercise", but it was too dam tough for a "Basic" level. Push-ups, Back raises, crunches, lunges, calf raises, none of it is easy...bleh! (Too bad i do no have any snapshot during the exercise and i do no wish to demonstrate it again either).

Raise flag! Zzzzzzz...

First 2.4km run, felt half dead, more than half actually, finished in 20mins 43sec. I did not know how the hell i made it. Big thanks to Ben for the support, just when i thought today's run was over, we were told that the evening run of 4km coming up, WTF? DAMN! My limbs are all numb now.. After the morning run, we went for a dip in the sea, yeah very dirty, oily, and smell one...sien... After that, we were allowed to go back to the bunk to take a shower and is expected to gather again at 8.15am for the morning circle for journals sharing and the daily "The Outer World" news update. All these activities would be our daily routine from today onwards.

Wake up -> Raise Flag -> Basic Exercise -> 2.4km run -> Morning dip -> Morning Circle -> Rinse & Repeat

Before run <-- --> After run...

Left: YEAHH!! Dipping time! Right: Walao..so dam dirty! Dun wan dip can ah?

Daily morning circle at expedition court

Time seems to fly really slowly. Am i going to get nuts by the end of Day 21?! I tried not to think about it, rather...I'm trying hard to enjoy it...trying to look on the bright side but...was it even possible?

An A340 flew passed by, i knew i must complete this course by any means! How can i move onto the future if i could not even endure this 21 days?

Personality Profile session next, Relaxing...fun and interesting. Never knew that the personality test could be so accurate, at least for me.

Afternoon came, and we were taught about the most basic navigating skills, in another word, using a compass and a map. Our objective was to get into the jungle, not too deep, try to keep ourselves oriented, not getting lost, and look for 3 checkpoints separated like 50 meters away from each other. Ah, only 50 meters? Sounds damn easy right? Trust me, it's not. It took us (a group of 4) 3 fking hours to find it, because that's because it was the maximum allocated time, and we only found 2 checkpoints in the end.

Basic navigation briefing

Left : One example of checkpoint Right : See nothing? Look again..

Left: Amazing shot! Right: WTF? A rifle's magazine clip?

Evening was 10x worse than morning run, ran 4km, unbelievable, without my team support, i wouldn't have been able to make it. Dinner seems to taste million times greater than usual. I have never anticipatted for a dinner so much in my life. Whole body is drained out of energy, felt like crap, aching all over.

Tomorrow will be another hurdle, starting by RUNNING! Could I survive tomorrow? I knew i could!! Bah...screw it! I'm just gonna sleep! Uh....just when i was trying to sleep, everyone start screaming around "BEES! LOTS OF THEM! SWITCH OFF THE LIGHT! OFF!!", damn noisy...However, I was too tired to give a damn. Oh, before i forget, this is our Day 2 journal.

Mood : Hellish!
Days Left : 19 (SEEMS FOREVER)